Category: ICT Team

This is the third year in a row I’ve written about these reports. They are the articles I hate writing, but feel it is necessary that people see them. The Delaware Interagency Collaborative Team (ICT) has the very difficult task of determining how to place students with disabilities when the services in a public school can no longer meet their needs. It is usually based on behavior issues. These are the toughest cases in Delaware. I’ve given this group a hard time in the past, but I’ve mellowed out a bit since then.

In Fiscal Year 2015, 140 Delaware students with disabilities received services through ICT. Out of those 140, 65 students were placed in residential treatment centers. 24 of those students were placed in out-of-state treatment centers which brings it to 37%. 72 students attended day treatment centers. As shown by the below graph, very few students received one-on-one services in the school. The report cites the needs-based funding formula as contributing to this decrease. Which I find ironic given that the needs-based formula doesn’t allow for basic special education funding for students in Kindergarten to 3rd grade.

What I always find odd about these reports is they never give the total cost of this program. They show high and low prices for some of these residential and day treatment centers. I would think that would be of major concern to the state. Or perhaps they just don’t want the public to see it for some reason.

I still feel the endless rigor of Common Core and performance on standardized tests is not good for any child. But for these students, it has to be extremely hard to meet the demands of “reaching proficiency”. These are the children I cry and pray for as much as possible. It is a parent of a special need’s child worst nightmare. I feel for the parents or guardians of the 140 children who faced this alternative last year. I can’t help but feel some of these could have been avoided at some point earlier…